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Page 6 December 8, 1987
Margaret Gast Exposes the Truth About Health Center
Interview with Margaret Gast,
Director of Student Health
Services
PN: One concern of students in
the Health Center is not open 24
hours a day or weekends. Your
hours are 8:30 a.m. to 12 a.m., is
that right?
Gast: That’s correct. I think one
problem that causes some dis­tress
to students and a lot of
distress to us in that no one
knows when we’re here and
when we’re not here. We have
tried in the past two years, since
we changed from 24 hour serv­ice
7 Jays a week to 16 hours
service 5 days a week, to com­municate
this to the students
and to help them understand
when we’re not here. They need
to know there is an emergency
network on campus and most
students probably don’t know
how to initiate it.
PN: How do you initiate it?
Gast: You initiate it by calling
3911. I f you personally are
unable to make this call, then an
RA, RHC, anyone can make this
call. Public safety, they have
the radio patch, they can be
reached any time. They have a
student worker in Public Safety
until 2-3:00 in the morning.
That’s very helpful. But any
other time, 3911 gets you the
emergency system.
PN: When did you make the
change from 24 hour service, and
why ?
Gast: The change has been in
effect for 2 years. It was an
administrative decision. It was
studied carefully and it was
determined that the Health
Center was not used at night,
the Health Center was not used
on weekends. We keep records
of anyone who comes in the
door. We made graphs and
charts, and it was determined
that is was just not cost-effec-tive
to have someone here when
they weren’t being utilized. We
felt the money could be best
used elsewhere.
PN: I think what students are
concerned about is not major
illnesses, but waking up Saturday
morning with the flu and knowing
that they have to feel awful until
Monday morning.
Gast: In the dorms, there are
first aid kits and cold packs.
This is one of the best kept
secrets on campus, nobody
knows about that either. There
is what we felt was the medica­tion
or whatever that would
tide anybody over until Monday
morning. I f there was anything
more involved than what could
be used in the first aid kit or in
the cold packs, then they proba­bly
need to be evaluated by a
physician and we might have to,
even if we were here, send them
up to the emergency room any­way.
Because we don’t have a
physician here on weekends,
naturally. We have not received
any requests for anything addi­tional
in the kits. We have, just
by trial and error, thinking
about what would take care of
a stomach ache and so forth.
PN: So there’s stuff like Suda fed
in there?
Gast: Oh yes. Sudafed, Tylenol,
salt to gargle, Pepto Bismol,
Neosporin, Peroxide, bandages,
all sorts of things that you
would need. Now, we have to
determine what’s an emergency
and I realize that what’s an
emergency to you is not neces­sarily
an emergency to other
people, it’s subjective. And
there’s absolutely no way I can
tell you that when you wake up
at 2:00 in the morning and feel
very ill, that’s not an emer­gency.
Obviously it’s an emer­gency
to you. But you need
something done, and you want
something done, and that’s why
we make these kits for you. And
the fact that you don’t have to
leave your building is a plus
also. I ’ve been working here for
10 years and I used to work
nights and I used to work eve­nings,
and young ladies coming
across this campus at 2:00 in the
morning to get something for a
cold or the flu was not a good
idea. I f nothing else, that’s one
of the pluses also for having the
first aid kits, you can stay right
in your building. And it’s up to
your RA ’s and RHC’s to make
sure that they are filled. They
just bring them over and replen­ish
them. We do not go into the
buildings and check them out. I
think that is the responsibility
of the residence life staff, to see
that they are kept filled. And
we have oodles of stuff to put
into them.
PN: What are the most common
ailments that people come in here
with? What do you see most of ten?
Gast: Most often, we call them
ENT problems; ear, nose and
throat. In this age group, that
should be the most common.
Everybody is really in good
health, should be in good health,
and should stay that way. And
that is also one off our objec­tives,
is to teach the student how
to stay well. That’s not just a
flashy word, it’s a reality. And
if you don’t learn it now, or
haven’t learned it in the past,
it’s time you do learn. And it’s
not that difficult, and there’s
one thing we do have at the
Health Center that people are
also not aware of, is a wealth of
information. They don’t have
to be sick to come into the
Health Center, they can come in
anytime and pick up anything
that we have, or ask for some­thing
they don’t see. We have a
classroom back there that is so
crowded, it is so jam-packed
with information, well, you
would be surprised.
PN: And this ties in with the
programming you have in the
lobby?
Gast: Every month we try to
take on something different.
This month we did breast can­cer
because of the recent noto­riety
in the news and so forth
about breast cancer. It has
become a very popular thing to
be aware of. We had a program
on campus; 3 or 4 outside people
from the community came in
and spoke on breast cancer, and
it was sponsored by 3 different
halls on the dorms. The atten­dance
was pretty good, and
from what I understand the
students enjoyed it and got a lot
of information from it. We’re
going to have another one on
AIDS shortly, in fact, in the
next couple of weeks. We will
bring someone in from the
community. There are a lot
more people in our community
who are experts in their field
than even I realized. And what
we need to do is make a few
phone calls to get people who
will help us present programs to
the students. Nobody charges
us, it’s all done free. They bring
the materials in...they do a good
job, they really do. But that is
part of our educational pro­gram.
We were discussing what
the theme will be for December.
It just may be “Have a Safe
Holiday;” don’t drink and drive
and things like that, instead of
something really heavy. Just
“Have a Merry Christmas.” We
try to keep some pertinent in­formation
on the big bulletin
boards in the dorms, and also
boxes beside the bulletin boards
with further information. I
have a list of the types of
programs that if a student de­cided
to sponsor a program for
their hall or dorm, we know
people that will come on campus
and present that program.
PN: Can you tell me a few of
them?
Gast: OK. Nutrition, natural
foods, that’s very popular now.
Woman’s health care., men’s
health care, which is often
overlooked but very important
also. Drug and alcohol abuse is
a never ending problem. There
are many people in our commu­nity
who present excellent pro­grams
on that. Of course, all of
the sexually transmitted dis­eases,
you can narrow it down,
or make the program very
broad, whichever you want. We
have some other clever ones,
like “Making Your Money
Count”—and they do not have to
be health-oriented subjects.
“Motivating Young Adults to be
Winners”--this could be very
important right now. We have a
lot of really good speakers. Peer
pressure, race relations, all
these programs. We have a
whole list of speakers, not from
a speakers bureau, but people
we know. We can present psy­chological
programs. I noticed
that the SGA is presenting a
speak on college suicide. This is
a rough time for anybody, and
to need help is almost the nor­mal
thing, rather than the ex­ception.
We do not consider it
an abnormal thing for a student
to need a little bit of coun­selling.
We very often refer
them to Dr. Romano, only if he
can help them with their stress,
because stress can make you ill
physically.
PN: Going back to the program­ming,
do you feel that you get a
lot of student participation? I
mean, students coming in to watch
the videos and so forth. Do you
think they’re getting a lot out of
what you’re trying to do in terms
of learning to stay well?
Gast: I think they do. We used
to see twice as many students
for minor things as we do now.
I t ’s really amazing; they know
how to take care of themselves
now. I t ’s been almost five years
since we tried to introduce self
care. I f you need eyedrops or
ear drops, we don’t have you
come back four times a day so
we can put them in anymore. We
teach you how to do it yourself.
Now when a student comes in,
they’re ill no doubt about it. We
basically are here to take care of
student illnesses, not just put on
programs, don’t get me wrong,
but we are also here to educate.
PN: How many times do you refill
the three-for-free dispenser in the
lobby?
Gast: It depends on what day it
is. I can tell you... let me give
you an rough estimate on how
many packages are taken each
week. I would say from 200-250
packages a week. That’s an
average. I’m going by the
number of condoms that are
sent to us from the State. I think
everyone should know, they are
given to us free from the State.
This is not Health Center money
paying for the condoms, it is a
state program. We put them in
packages. We used to get them
from the Health Department
here, but now the State sends
them to us directly. We were
using so many, the Health
Department could not keep up
with us! It sounds kind of
strange, but it’s true. They were
running down here all the time,
and us calling frantically to say
we were running out. I just
made a contract with the De­partment
of Health and Mental
Hygiene, and we get them by
UPS in big boxes. It is a pro­gram
that was a long time
coming on campus, and what
really brought it to a head was
the AIDS epidemic. We have
used the three-for-free, not as a
birth control, it is infection
control. That is how we stand
on giving out condoms.
PN: Is there anything else you
would like to say?
Gast: I guess my final comment
continued on page 7

Page 6 December 8, 1987
Margaret Gast Exposes the Truth About Health Center
Interview with Margaret Gast,
Director of Student Health
Services
PN: One concern of students in
the Health Center is not open 24
hours a day or weekends. Your
hours are 8:30 a.m. to 12 a.m., is
that right?
Gast: That’s correct. I think one
problem that causes some dis­tress
to students and a lot of
distress to us in that no one
knows when we’re here and
when we’re not here. We have
tried in the past two years, since
we changed from 24 hour serv­ice
7 Jays a week to 16 hours
service 5 days a week, to com­municate
this to the students
and to help them understand
when we’re not here. They need
to know there is an emergency
network on campus and most
students probably don’t know
how to initiate it.
PN: How do you initiate it?
Gast: You initiate it by calling
3911. I f you personally are
unable to make this call, then an
RA, RHC, anyone can make this
call. Public safety, they have
the radio patch, they can be
reached any time. They have a
student worker in Public Safety
until 2-3:00 in the morning.
That’s very helpful. But any
other time, 3911 gets you the
emergency system.
PN: When did you make the
change from 24 hour service, and
why ?
Gast: The change has been in
effect for 2 years. It was an
administrative decision. It was
studied carefully and it was
determined that the Health
Center was not used at night,
the Health Center was not used
on weekends. We keep records
of anyone who comes in the
door. We made graphs and
charts, and it was determined
that is was just not cost-effec-tive
to have someone here when
they weren’t being utilized. We
felt the money could be best
used elsewhere.
PN: I think what students are
concerned about is not major
illnesses, but waking up Saturday
morning with the flu and knowing
that they have to feel awful until
Monday morning.
Gast: In the dorms, there are
first aid kits and cold packs.
This is one of the best kept
secrets on campus, nobody
knows about that either. There
is what we felt was the medica­tion
or whatever that would
tide anybody over until Monday
morning. I f there was anything
more involved than what could
be used in the first aid kit or in
the cold packs, then they proba­bly
need to be evaluated by a
physician and we might have to,
even if we were here, send them
up to the emergency room any­way.
Because we don’t have a
physician here on weekends,
naturally. We have not received
any requests for anything addi­tional
in the kits. We have, just
by trial and error, thinking
about what would take care of
a stomach ache and so forth.
PN: So there’s stuff like Suda fed
in there?
Gast: Oh yes. Sudafed, Tylenol,
salt to gargle, Pepto Bismol,
Neosporin, Peroxide, bandages,
all sorts of things that you
would need. Now, we have to
determine what’s an emergency
and I realize that what’s an
emergency to you is not neces­sarily
an emergency to other
people, it’s subjective. And
there’s absolutely no way I can
tell you that when you wake up
at 2:00 in the morning and feel
very ill, that’s not an emer­gency.
Obviously it’s an emer­gency
to you. But you need
something done, and you want
something done, and that’s why
we make these kits for you. And
the fact that you don’t have to
leave your building is a plus
also. I ’ve been working here for
10 years and I used to work
nights and I used to work eve­nings,
and young ladies coming
across this campus at 2:00 in the
morning to get something for a
cold or the flu was not a good
idea. I f nothing else, that’s one
of the pluses also for having the
first aid kits, you can stay right
in your building. And it’s up to
your RA ’s and RHC’s to make
sure that they are filled. They
just bring them over and replen­ish
them. We do not go into the
buildings and check them out. I
think that is the responsibility
of the residence life staff, to see
that they are kept filled. And
we have oodles of stuff to put
into them.
PN: What are the most common
ailments that people come in here
with? What do you see most of ten?
Gast: Most often, we call them
ENT problems; ear, nose and
throat. In this age group, that
should be the most common.
Everybody is really in good
health, should be in good health,
and should stay that way. And
that is also one off our objec­tives,
is to teach the student how
to stay well. That’s not just a
flashy word, it’s a reality. And
if you don’t learn it now, or
haven’t learned it in the past,
it’s time you do learn. And it’s
not that difficult, and there’s
one thing we do have at the
Health Center that people are
also not aware of, is a wealth of
information. They don’t have
to be sick to come into the
Health Center, they can come in
anytime and pick up anything
that we have, or ask for some­thing
they don’t see. We have a
classroom back there that is so
crowded, it is so jam-packed
with information, well, you
would be surprised.
PN: And this ties in with the
programming you have in the
lobby?
Gast: Every month we try to
take on something different.
This month we did breast can­cer
because of the recent noto­riety
in the news and so forth
about breast cancer. It has
become a very popular thing to
be aware of. We had a program
on campus; 3 or 4 outside people
from the community came in
and spoke on breast cancer, and
it was sponsored by 3 different
halls on the dorms. The atten­dance
was pretty good, and
from what I understand the
students enjoyed it and got a lot
of information from it. We’re
going to have another one on
AIDS shortly, in fact, in the
next couple of weeks. We will
bring someone in from the
community. There are a lot
more people in our community
who are experts in their field
than even I realized. And what
we need to do is make a few
phone calls to get people who
will help us present programs to
the students. Nobody charges
us, it’s all done free. They bring
the materials in...they do a good
job, they really do. But that is
part of our educational pro­gram.
We were discussing what
the theme will be for December.
It just may be “Have a Safe
Holiday;” don’t drink and drive
and things like that, instead of
something really heavy. Just
“Have a Merry Christmas.” We
try to keep some pertinent in­formation
on the big bulletin
boards in the dorms, and also
boxes beside the bulletin boards
with further information. I
have a list of the types of
programs that if a student de­cided
to sponsor a program for
their hall or dorm, we know
people that will come on campus
and present that program.
PN: Can you tell me a few of
them?
Gast: OK. Nutrition, natural
foods, that’s very popular now.
Woman’s health care., men’s
health care, which is often
overlooked but very important
also. Drug and alcohol abuse is
a never ending problem. There
are many people in our commu­nity
who present excellent pro­grams
on that. Of course, all of
the sexually transmitted dis­eases,
you can narrow it down,
or make the program very
broad, whichever you want. We
have some other clever ones,
like “Making Your Money
Count”—and they do not have to
be health-oriented subjects.
“Motivating Young Adults to be
Winners”--this could be very
important right now. We have a
lot of really good speakers. Peer
pressure, race relations, all
these programs. We have a
whole list of speakers, not from
a speakers bureau, but people
we know. We can present psy­chological
programs. I noticed
that the SGA is presenting a
speak on college suicide. This is
a rough time for anybody, and
to need help is almost the nor­mal
thing, rather than the ex­ception.
We do not consider it
an abnormal thing for a student
to need a little bit of coun­selling.
We very often refer
them to Dr. Romano, only if he
can help them with their stress,
because stress can make you ill
physically.
PN: Going back to the program­ming,
do you feel that you get a
lot of student participation? I
mean, students coming in to watch
the videos and so forth. Do you
think they’re getting a lot out of
what you’re trying to do in terms
of learning to stay well?
Gast: I think they do. We used
to see twice as many students
for minor things as we do now.
I t ’s really amazing; they know
how to take care of themselves
now. I t ’s been almost five years
since we tried to introduce self
care. I f you need eyedrops or
ear drops, we don’t have you
come back four times a day so
we can put them in anymore. We
teach you how to do it yourself.
Now when a student comes in,
they’re ill no doubt about it. We
basically are here to take care of
student illnesses, not just put on
programs, don’t get me wrong,
but we are also here to educate.
PN: How many times do you refill
the three-for-free dispenser in the
lobby?
Gast: It depends on what day it
is. I can tell you... let me give
you an rough estimate on how
many packages are taken each
week. I would say from 200-250
packages a week. That’s an
average. I’m going by the
number of condoms that are
sent to us from the State. I think
everyone should know, they are
given to us free from the State.
This is not Health Center money
paying for the condoms, it is a
state program. We put them in
packages. We used to get them
from the Health Department
here, but now the State sends
them to us directly. We were
using so many, the Health
Department could not keep up
with us! It sounds kind of
strange, but it’s true. They were
running down here all the time,
and us calling frantically to say
we were running out. I just
made a contract with the De­partment
of Health and Mental
Hygiene, and we get them by
UPS in big boxes. It is a pro­gram
that was a long time
coming on campus, and what
really brought it to a head was
the AIDS epidemic. We have
used the three-for-free, not as a
birth control, it is infection
control. That is how we stand
on giving out condoms.
PN: Is there anything else you
would like to say?
Gast: I guess my final comment
continued on page 7